United We Stand, Divided We Fell

[Krafty]

Four wins out of five, with only a loss against the champions, is nothing to be disheartened about. Sure, our performance yesterday was not our best but we have started terrifically and if we see the consistency that has been absent from our club for decades then we will have a great season. However, there are a few lessons that we still need to learn.

Perhaps the amazing start kicked United into gear but their passing and movement was superb and we simply could not handle it. Their strikers dropped deep into acres of space, their midfielders played the ball and then tore pass their marker giving another option. While their style is something to emulate, we need to learn how to defend and keep teams out.

Struggling to keep clean sheets will always make games a bit more nail-biting, and against the top teams we will be exposed, as happened yesterday. While I would have picked the same team as Harry yesterday, we did miss Keane dropping deep from his forward role to shore up midfield. He pressed Mascherano and Lucas on the first day of the season, making it hard for Liverpool to pass the ball into the front men. However, Crouch and Defoe do not have that awareness, defensively, nor the ability to fulfil that role. Playing the long ball to the big man can frustrate when the opposition is sitting back, but when you are the team sitting back it can be a very effective tactic. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but perhaps we should have sat back, get the men behind the ball and make the opposition pass around us, rather than letting them pass through us. With our backline we should deal with crosses well, so we shouldn’t be afraid of teams going wide.

Our pressing game has been very productive but it needs high work rate from front to back. It needs team work. You cannot press the ball one player at a time; it has to be a team effort. Unfortunately I don’t think we worked well as a team, which was a setback from our other performances this season. Players would press the ball and then, too often, switch off allowing the man to make a run off them. Perhaps there was also a case of marking a zone rather than the man. Against less inventive teams this will not be a problem but teams that have such dynamic movement it can and was our downfall. If you are trying to press teams that can control possession so adeptly you need to do it with numbers. And speaking of numbers, it comes to our second lesson.

For some reason, when Scholes was sent off, we failed to create one decent opening and it was United who looked more dangerous. We failed to stretch their defence and make the space that should have been available with them down to ten. The second half against Birmingham showed how to play when the opposition is very defensive, and how to use Crouch to his best – get the ball wide, hit it high to the back post and if he doesn’t get an effort on goal, get the second ball. We did it in the first minute but couldn’t do it from minute two onwards.

Manchester United showed how to defend a lead, how to play with ten men and how to play on the counter. It’s a lesson we could do with learning quickly with a trip to Stamford Bridge coming up.

We came up against a very well drilled team that has played a certain style for many years. Given the international break, Harry only had one day with the boys and the lack of time could have been a problem. With Europe kicking in this week, the extra time on the training pitch should benefit us and hopefully the team can continue to develop.

I expect a different line-up next week against Chelsea and a different style, considering how Harry’s Portsmouth team got on with Crouch and Defoe upfront last season. If we do not get a positive result it should not take away from a very strong start, and then we can get back to our high tempo, pressing, aggressive play against Burnley and Stoke.

 

[JimmyG2]

We gave them possession by playing the long ball to Crouch when they were down to ten men. We didn´t make the extra man count by keeping the ball, making them chase, and to be honest it made no difference to them.
It raises the argument again whether having Crouch up front is too tempting to too many players to play long too often. It becomes Plan A instead of a useful tactic to be used as a variation or to relieve pressure.
I think you are right about poking a hornet's nest with a stick. It focussed their minds though I thought we played well until a silly lunge gave them the free kick which started to unravel our play.
I thought Jenas showed some class and expect him to play in place of Huddlestone next week and the referee gave the major decision to us though he ignored a lot of rough play by Vidic, but then most ref. do.
Disappointed but not depressed.

 

[riversmonkey]

Is it fair to say that a point from United at home and Chelsea away is probably hand on heart, what most of us would have expected, even despite our fantastic start. So if we can hang on for a draw at Stamford Bridge next week then alongside our four wins from four it works out at 13 points from six games, in which we will have played three of the top four.

I think that would be considered a fairly decent start.

 

[AndyLov]

Spot on JimmyG2, but even before the free kick we were giving possession away far to much easily for a team a goal up. It's ok to be so open against the spammers or Hull but Man U will punish anyone playing like that. It might have been a question of confidence. I honestly think we are as good as them player for player but given our history against Man U we might have been panicked into playing the long easy balls when, against other teams, we would have had the self belief just to pass round them.

As well as Jenas, and probably Gomez, back in the team you'd think Crouch will be benched for Kranjcar against Chelsea.

 

[sebo_sek]

Like I said in another thread, after Chelsea we have Burnley, Bolton, Porstmouth and Stoke so should be 12 points. If we draw at Stamford Bridge we should be looking at 25 points by the end of October, which would be absolutely stellar form!

The sooner we drop Keane however the better. Kranjcar/Gio Jenas Wilson Lennon with Defoe and Pav upfront. I say Pav as we play on the ground with him in the team. Crouchy is t'riffic at holding the ball up, but we play much better just passing it arround.

 

[3Dnata]

I did find it dissapointing because in the two previous seasons we should have beaten Man U and for all but 90 seconds we never looked likely to do so.
Incidently I was expecting us to win but the performance was not good.
I still think we really should finish 5th at the very least.

 

[tomo]

we did alright but think we gave them a little too much respect and lets face it their defence is solid.
Palacios started well but got sloppy as the game went on and looked understandably knackered. Huddlestone drifted in an out of the game but once again when up against tough opposition found it hard to put his mark on the game. I thought Jenas actually played well when he came on.
Think Redknapp should have gone to 3 at the back when Scholes was sent off.
Its still been a great start to the season though and the sooner we get Modric back the better, we just seem to keep the ball a lot better when he's about.

 

[mil1lion]

I think we were a little too confident really. We went into the game without fear because of our great start. So we played a very open game at a frantic pace. It played straight into Utds hands. They were excellent and we looked particularly tired. We need to be a lot better organised at the Bridge. Chris Waddle on commentary was saying we lacked balance. But we didn't lack balance in the previous 4 League games. We simply lost our shape. Keane on the left didn't help at all. Kranjcar is the playmaker to stand in for Modric and i hope he starts on Sunday. And without that playmaker in midfield we ended up playing too many long balls instead. It is only one game though, and we have no European games this week. So we have plenty of time to get our heads clear again and fitness levels back up.

 

[kernowspur]

The main lesson to learn from the game is that against teams that can play crisp, fast attacking football we cannot afford to play Palacios and Huddlestone together in central midfield. Huddlestone's lack of pace is too great a burden in these type of matches. It should be back to Jenas and Palacios from now on.

 

[JoeT]

Palacious was very tired from games plus travel and we were without Modric....therefore = a weak midfield....especially if a non-midfielder (Keane) is filling one of the other spots. Scholes and Giggs were fresh, plus Fletcher played very combatitively and they won the midfield. Our back line didn't always have someone to pass out to, plus there was the temptation to pass to Crouch, so we went away from our passing game.Crouch almost hauled us back in it with his header, but it wasn't to be.
Lennon pulled it out of the bag late...twice for us previously, but he also looked off, maybe due to his very emotional game for England, mid-week... Plus lets give some credit to Evra as well.